První republika - Série 1

Originally a 22-part series, it’s been edited into 11 TV movies for DVD purposes. The plot is much more compact, and the performances can be evaluated better because they really match the character development. It's not perfectly retro, but considering how things developed in the Czech Republic after 1945 (there are still popular films and series from the 1960s, for example, that have nothing period-like about them), it's still a step forward. There’s a bit of nostalgia, a few good ideas, the courage to choose an erotic enterprise as one of the recurring settings, the effort to involve real events in the plot, to imitate the contemporary press, and to highlight new developments in culture and fashion. All of this is quite significant. A trio of families whose fates are linked has been a natural theme for TV sagas since The Forsyte Saga. The most adorable, and by far the funniest, are the acting etudes of Zdena Studenková as Mrs. Škvorová, the sugar maid, Markéta Plánková as the daughter of the Lébls, who married Valenta Vehicles, and of course Ján Koleník as Vladimír's main lover. I also appreciate the storyline with the clothing salon reminiscent of the famous series The House of Eliott. In the end, I was even looking forward to watching the gossipy adventure come to a melodramatic end. In addition, the whole plot corpus works in the 1918-1920 period, so there’s no possibility for it to drag. Flashbacks are dated to 1910, with one front flash even going as far as 1928. At the very end, the crime plot picks up, the individual characters go through purification, and nobody trusts anybody. It's interesting to watch because the setting is still very attractive, the spa is a new relevant topic and it's the unexpected gypsies on the farm who manage to solve the ghost subplot. It's just too bad that with the last episodes, the costumes of the main female characters became a bit tired, which mostly dehumanized the performances of Plánková and Nová, who could otherwise shine even in potato sacks, but the sacks would have to be different every time. In any case, the finale is excellent, and after the basic "Who was the killer?" question is solved, re-watching the series in its entirety takes on a new dimension. It was a joy to watch and will be again. (09.01.2019)